STACK #250 August 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack HURT SO GOOD Charlie Collins’ third album is searingly honest – and superb.

Words Jeff Jenkins

How tough is it being sober in the music business, when you’re surrounded by alcohol and temptation? For me, it wasn’t so much about the alcohol, it was more about figuring out who I was. I was struggling with a lot of past trauma and mental things; sobriety

Was it a good feeling when you realised you could write songs sober? Yeah, absolutely. This record is such a journey. Discovering that I was a lot more capable than I thought I was. That was such a big thing for me. I no longer romanticise the tortured artist, because the only one who was torturing me was myself.

W hen Charlie Collins appeared on this year’s season-opener of Spicks and Specks , her team captain Alan Brough was struck by the mass of contradictions in front of him. “You’re like an old woman with a potty mouth in a young girl’s body,” he remarked. Charlie laughs when reminded of the quote. “I think that’s a fair description. My first word was f-ck, so that checks out.” It’s the contradictions that make Charlie’s third solo album, Nightwriter , so compelling. These are killer pop songs, with big hooks and marvellous melodies. But at the heart of the record is a human story, the epic tale of Charlie’s struggle to get sober. A record of recovery and redemption, much of it written in rehab. Charlie made Nightwriter with Neil Finn and Steven Schram at Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. When the Crowded House legend first heard the songs, he told the singer, “I feel like I’m reading your diary, and at times I shouldn’t be.” “I wear my heart on my sleeve,” Charlie sings. “I never water that sh-t down.” The result is one of 2025’s most remarkable records – and one of the best.

was the way to keep my mind clear, so I could get well. When I became clean and sober, I loved how I felt. Now I just have to learn how to be me.

What was it like being in the studio with Neil Finn? Oh gosh, I learnt so much from him. I went into the studio with just my iPhone demos; I didn’t have any plans of how I wanted the songs to sound. Essentially, it was just me, Steven Schram, and Neil, and we weaved this album into existence.

Nightwriter by Charlie Collins is out Aug 29 via Universal

The album ends with an excerpt from an old interview, where you’re asked if you have any long-term ambitions.You reply, “Um, no, I just want to keep doing what I’m doing and if something happens, well, that’s really good.” That was an interview I did when I was 12 when I did a big show in Tamworth with Keith Urban and a bunch of country artists. I wanted to put that on the record as a little reminder to myself that I do music because I love it. It’s never been about fame or money; it’s about the pure joy and love of music. And I still feel the exact same way. OLD BAILEY Before going solo, Charlie Collins had been in two bands, the family band Chasing Bailey, and Tigertown with her ex-husband, Chris Collins. In 2019 she released a single called I Don’t Want to Be in a Rock Band . “I really love being solo,” she says. “There’s this sense of independence and freedom. Having said that, I will tour with a band, so I still have a band to fall back on.”

The cover shows you with a book called Nightwriter . We just photoshopped “Nightwriter” on my diary, which is what I wrote all my songs in. I wanted to open the album with Nightwriter to give an idea of how I write songs: it’s late at night, and it’s just me and my thoughts, alone in my bedroom. That song is actually the original iPhone demo. Overall, it’s a guide to my brain and how the songs fall out.

Charlie Collins

Photo credit: Sean McDonald

48 AUGUST 2025

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